Fate/Zero Episode 22: Intense Build-Up

You know, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop laughing when looking at this.

Summary

Waver comes back home and gets snagged by his “grandfather”, who has a talk with him about him knowing they aren’t related, causing the kid to start thinking about the right thing to do. Meanwhile, Kiritsugu tries to prevent Kirei from acquiring the Grail, not sleeping and feeling like a loner because that’s what he is *sobsob* even Saber keeps her distances, poor him.

Irisviel, on her side, is still captured, and she provokes Kotomine Kirei, who can’t seem to understand Kiritsugu at all. She tells him the reason why he fights, to which Kotomine replies by strangling her and leaving with a smile and a goal that’s the way to go. He intends to ruin Kiritsugu’s ideals by stealing the Grail from him…

At night, Waver and Rider spot a signal of challenge sent by Kotomine Kirei and Gilgamesh, to which Rider responds accordingly by going to fight. He forces Waver along despite him using up all his Command Seals, and everyone else also hurries to this challenge as the episode ends with the idea that next episode will be fucking badass.

Impression

Oh man, oh man, THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!! This episode was a huge lump of suspense and storyline building up…

There are so many things that need mentioning, therefore I warn thee, this is going to be long.

First, I find it important to mention the nice bro-ship Rider and Waver have, because it’s seriously awesome to see those two as Master and Servant. Everytime we see them together, it’s like I’m looking at a father teaching his son about the things in life, all while protecting him and taking care of him. Meanwhile, Waver tries incessantly to be less of a burden to him, but of course a father never lets go of his child… That’s what it feels like to me, and I really like how it was shown in the anime, for them not to have as much air time as others and still be incredibly important is what makes this show awesome.

Now, on the other side, you can’t say the same thing about Saber and Emiya. Those two, well… You know… Irisviel was linking them together, and now she’s dead so Kiritsugu’s stuck being a loner again. I really feel bad for him, he just had to be the good, unlucky guy who loses every single person he loves. Good thing he hasn’t lost his daughter yet… Note the “yet”. I look forward to the next few episodes to see what will happen between the Master and Servant on their side, since right now they are not cooperating at all. The more things go, the more credibility Kiritsugu loses as the episodes go on. He doesn’t have much resources anymore…

*sighs nostalgically* You should go back to being young and awesome.

As for Kotomine Kirei, he’s picking up all the credibility Kiritsugu loses over time. After killing Irisviel, figuring out what Emiya’s goal was and calling out to everyone for a challenge, he acted way too freakin’ badass not to be the coolest at the moment. Now, it’s only a question of who wins between Kiritsugu and Tokiomi… Because honestly, next week is the fight between Rider and Gilgamesh, and I can kinda guess where it’s going already. I don’t see Rider and Waver winning anytime soon, they’re clearly a whole level under the other two competitors, so I’ll be curious to know who will win between Saber and Gilgamesh in the end. I’d bet my hopes on Gilgamesh, but I want Saber to win so… We’ll see what happens *shrugs* I kinda wish I’d read the novels, I’d be able to discuss a little bit more, but at least not knowing is what makes the anime more surprising and interesting.

To end this character analysis, I’d like to discuss Irisviel in a little bit more detail. I didn’t understand all the symbolism going on in this scene completely, especially since I don’t know exactly what’s going on in Irisviel’s head, but it seems like that woman is a maniac on her own, and I’m not as sure that she’s such a good person in the end. Yes, she did seem to agree with Kiritsugu’s ideal, but…

That smile tells me she might have ideas of her own.

It might just be me imagining things… But, there is definitely more to know about Irisviel, and I expect her to show up again sometime soon to pull out some crazy speech which will surprise even Kiritsugu. Even though she’s dead in real life, she’s still inside the Grail, and that last scene only reinforced the idea that her death will not wipe out her character just yet. Which is awesome, because I tend to love Irisviel 🙂 She’s awesome.